ebb
Appearance
See also: -ebb
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Etymology 1
[edit]From Middle English ebbe, from Old English ebba (“ebb, tide”), from Proto-West Germanic *abbjā, from Proto-Germanic *abjô, *abjǭ, from Proto-Germanic *ab (“off, away”), from Proto-Indo-European *apó.
See also West Frisian ebbe, Dutch eb, German Ebbe, Danish ebbe, Old Norse efja (“countercurrent”), Old English af. More at of, off.
Noun
[edit]ebb (plural ebbs)
- The receding movement of the tide.
- The boats will go out on the ebb.
- 1824, Mary Shelley, Time:
- Thou shoreless flood which in thy ebb and flow / Claspest the limits of morality!
- 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:
- Men come from distant parts to admire the tides of Solway, which race in at flood and retreat at ebb with a greater speed than a horse can follow.
- A gradual decline.
- 1684, Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon, Essay on Translated Verse:
- Thus all the treasure of our flowing years, / Our ebb of life for ever takes away.
- 1826, [Mary Shelley], The Last Man. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC:
- This reflection thawed my congealing blood, and again the tide of life and love flowed impetuously onward, again to ebb as my busy thoughts changed.
- 2012, James Howard Kunstler, Too Much Magic, page 74:
- Industrialism hasn’t been an abiding set of activities in any particular place but rather a dynamic cycle, of takeoff, peak, and ebb.
- (especially in the phrase 'at a low ebb') A low state; a state of depression.
- 1695, C[harles] A[lphonse] du Fresnoy, translated by John Dryden, De Arte Graphica. The Art of Painting, […], London: […] J[ohn] Heptinstall for W. Rogers, […], →OCLC:
- Painting was then at its lowest ebb.
- 2002, Joyce Carol Oates, The New Yorker, 22 & 29 April
- A "lowest ebb" implies something singular and finite, but for many of us, born in the Depression and raised by parents distrustful of fortune, an "ebb" might easily have lasted for years.
- 2020 July 29, Dr Joseph Brennan, “Railways that reach out over the waves”, in Rail, page 51:
- The 1987 book British Piers was written at a time when Britain's seaside resorts were perhaps at their lowest ebb, with a groundswell of support for rejuvenation and conservation just beginning.
- A European bunting, the corn bunting (Emberiza calandra, syns. Emberiza miliaria, Milaria calandra).
Antonyms
[edit]Derived terms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]receding movement of the tide
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked: "Originally glossed as "low tide" but this is not one of the given definitions of ebb. Please check for applicability to "receding movement of the tide""
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Adjective
[edit]ebb (comparative ebber, superlative ebbest)
- low, shallow
- 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “(please specify |book=I to XXXVII)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], (please specify |tome=1 or 2), London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC:
- All the sea lying betweene, is verie ebbe, full of shallowes and shelves
Etymology 2
[edit]From Middle English ebben, from Old English ebbian, from Proto-West Germanic *abbjōn (“to ebb”).
Verb
[edit]ebb (third-person singular simple present ebbs, present participle ebbing, simple past and past participle ebbed)
- (intransitive) to flow back or recede
- (intransitive) to fall away or decline
- The dying man's strength ebbed away.
- (intransitive) to fish with stakes and nets that serve to prevent the fish from getting back into the sea with the ebb
- (transitive) To cause to flow back.
- 1977 August 20, Robin Nicholson, quotee, “7 Arrested in Undercover Raid on P'town Bar”, in Gay Community News, volume 5, number 7, page 1:
- Parts of this town do not want a big influx of gay people and are trying to ebb it.
Synonyms
[edit]Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]to fall away or decline
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Anagrams
[edit]Swedish
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Noun
[edit]ebb c
Declension
[edit]nominative | genitive | ||
---|---|---|---|
singular | indefinite | ebb | ebbs |
definite | ebben | ebbens | |
plural | indefinite | — | — |
definite | — | — |
See also
[edit]- tidvatten (“tide”)
References
[edit]Categories:
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɛb
- Rhymes:English/ɛb/1 syllable
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- English adjectives
- English verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- English transitive verbs
- en:Emberizids
- en:Tides
- en:Water
- English calculator words
- Swedish terms borrowed from Dutch
- Swedish terms derived from Dutch
- Swedish terms borrowed from German
- Swedish terms derived from German
- Swedish lemmas
- Swedish nouns
- Swedish common-gender nouns